I'm sorry to say, we cannot accept Christmas trees at our drop-off site on Roosevelt Island. This is because we have neither the capacity to haul potentially A LOT of trees nor do we have a wood chipper and the ability to process them.

This link is from the NYC Parks Department website and maps all of the locations where trees can be disposed of. However, the closest site to Roosevelt Island residents is very near to our processing site, underneath the Queensboro Bridge, at the corner of Queens Plaza South and 10th St.

... The Hunters Point Parks Conservancy has partnered with the Parks Department to participate in MulchFest, an annual event for recycling Christmas trees into mulch. The event will take place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hunters Point South Park near Center Boulevard and Borden Avenue....

We have just received metrics from Ryan Olds on the first six weeks of Organics Recycling with BIG Reuse/NYC Compost on Roosevelt Island. Ryan will be staffing again this Saturday. We encourage all to come out and meet him and bring lots of kitchen scraps from healthy eating in this brand new year.

Here are our metrics from the first 6 weeks...

11/28/15
220 lbs organics

12/5/15
215 lbs organics

12/12/15
175 lbs organics

12/19/15
235 lbs organics

12/26/15
135 lbs organics

1/2/16
340 lbs organics

That puts us at a total of 280 drop-offs, 494 interactions, and 1320 lbs of organics collected! Very exciting!

The Social Cultural and Education Committee of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association is working with local groups to promote good citizenship. The multi-media campaign is designed to raise awareness of the impact residents have on each others' lives, whether by design or through inadvertent actions.

Most residents are loyal members of our community and praise life in our small town. The campaign will highlight actions individuals can take to make the island a warmer place for everyone.

The campaign began with posters drawn by members of Brownie Girl Scout Troop 3001, a group of second and third grade girls. Together, the girls brainstormed a list of ways to complete the sentence "On Roosevelt Island we" with a verb that suggested a positive action and a picture that illustrates the thought.

The girls identified many ways that we can be good citizens to make our community a warmer and better place.

Troop Leader Aiesha Eleusizov said that one action that really resonated with the girls was cleaning up after their pets. One girl immediately piped up, "I once stepped in it in my bare feet!" Which of course, elicited a loud chorus of "EEEEW" from the rest of the troop.

This is an issue which personally impacts everyone's ability to enjoy the wonderful outdoor activities available on Roosevelt Island, especially the children who spend a lot of time playing in the grass.

Several of the Scouts drew pictures of children playing with and cleaning up after their dogs with the sentence, "On Roosevelt Island we pick up the poop!" to help remind everyone on the island to be a responsible pet owner.

and helping elderly residents. They will be printed in a larger format for placement on the kiosks and the red bus. Some will be scanned and displayed on the monitors in the tram cabin. RIOC is supporting the reproduction of the posters.

The campaign is scheduled to run for the year ahead, with posters from Girl Scout Troops 3244 & 3245 with Troop leader Janine Schaefer in the next series.

Other child-oriented groups to be invited to participate are students of PS/IS 217, Roosevelt Island Day Nursery, Island Kids, Roosevelt Island Parents Network, Church of Good Shepherd, Roosevelt Island Jewish Congregation, Hope Church, Roosevelt Island Marlins and the Child/Legacy High Schools.

UPDATE 6:15 PM - Ms. Shinozaki adds:

We were unable to list every group we intend to reach out to but we look forward to having the opportunity to present first the work of all Island Children and then we hope to reach out to everyone who would like to participate.

Roosevelt Island NYC Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member Frank Farance participated in a December 28, 2015 disaster simulation drill at Hostos College in the Bronx. Mr. Farance shares these photos and reports on the Bronx CERT Drill.

Bronx (New York City) Disaster Simulation for newly graduating CERT members. Consistent in drills over the years: MANY ADULTS DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER.

Use of a Fire Extinguisher is something people should really learn. And liquid flammables become even more dangerous when they are spread via improper use of an extinguisher.

If you have a grease fire in your kitchen and don't know how to put it out quickly (i.e., 1-2 seconds) with that 2.5 pound kitchen extinguisher, you are going to be out of propellant by the time you've figured out how to use the thing ... and you might have made the fire worse!

The first photo is a random victim who is wandering about,

suffering from psychological shock: us existing CERT members were playing victims with different injuries and different roles - to make it harder for the graduating team.

The next four photos show what happens when you use a fire extinguisher improperly on liquid fires. The Responder is not aiming at the base of the flames (rightmost of three fires), but INTO the flames, which causes the liquid to spread,

and then they finally put it out.

But while they are putting it out, another Responder is making the same mistake in the middle fire, which results in a huge fireball.

COMPARE these photos to the first photo of the random person in a daze, look how small these fires are then, and now look how big they can get when the flammable liquids are spread around.

The next two photos show how to properly put out the fire, and it is extinguished in 1-2 seconds.

The next four photos should be obvious: if you're extinguishing a fire, pay attention to what's behind the fire:

that would be ME, I had dry-chem all over me.

Next photo is the randomly walking person receiving "psychological first aid" from a Responder,

i.e., hoping to stabilize them enough to get them out of the danger zone. To the left is an "electrified car", which has a body under it (see dummy's legs) and the car crashed into a utility pole with power lines on the car.

Although there isn't actual electricity in the car, if the Responder touches the car, the Simulation Controller pulls the person out of the "game" and they disappear ... hoping some other Responder will notice the missing person (this happens if your Buddy System breaks down). Then every time someone touches the car, they get pulled out of the "game", until someone in the response team finally figures out: Oh, The Car Is Electrified, Stay Away!

That night, my role was: I was a 47-Year Old Male burn victim with first and second degree burns on my face -- and I was trying to distract the emergency Responders (the people who are being tested in this simulation) from their actual jobs so they could come take care of me ... pretty much as it would happen in a real emergency.

Last two photos: the dummy next to me,

who was thrown from the car that hit the utility pole (he is triaged as a Black Tag, which means he's dead), and the group photo of the "victims team":

we had 9 "victims" distracting and faking and doing everything possible to make it difficult for the emergency response team.

The New York StateWide Senior Action Council will be joining us to share information about healthcare and patient rights as well as dual eligibility for medicare and medicaid. Special thanks to the NYSSAC for partnering with us this month during our constituent hours and bringing their health services to the senior citizens of the Roosevelt Island Community.

by Urban Archaeologist Joan H. Geismar, Ph.D.
New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island
Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and even garbage can be beautiful. To the municipality, garbage is a constant headache. To the city’s residents, it is a disagreeable nuisance. Joan H. Geismar, Ph.D., will explain how garbage is a treasure trove of information to the urban archaeologist in a lecture at the New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.

As an example, an urban archaeological site—the 175 Water Street block in lower Manhattan—invites the question: Is it Trash or is it Treasure? Literally created from 18th-century detritus, and then the repository of 18th- and 19th-century trash, the block’s debris included a merchant ship that was sunk to structure the garbage-laden landfill. The derelict hulk was the site’s most extraordinary example of urban trash, as well as its most spectacular artifact.

Learn about the ship and the more than 350,000 less-sensational artifacts recovered from the site, as well as the research prompted by the finds in Dr. Geismar's lecture, sponsored by the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, and supported by Amalgamated Bank.

The event is FREE and open to the public. It is the first in a series of spring lectures sponsored by the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. Save the dates below for the remaining lectures in the series:

We chose to get married on the tram because it was something unique, and very special to us. Wes' family used to live there in the 80s. When I first started coming to NYC I fell in love with Roosevelt Island. We both think Roosevelt Island is a very charming and unique place, and we wanted to say our vows over the East river.

...The new Roosevelt Island NYPL Public Library Branch opening date has been moved up from early 2018 to the fall of 2017. The new library will have about the same number of circulating books, 26 new computers available for the public, expanded community and meeting space for children and adults (with looping technology for the hearing impaired), stroller storage area and an outdoor reading area....

Roosevelt Island New York Public Library (NYPL) Branch Manager Nicole Nelson invites you to a January 14 community conversation about the new NYPL Roosevelt Island branch coming to the first floor at 504 Main Street. According to Ms. Nelson:

The New York Public Library: Building for You

Please join The New York Public Library for a Community Conversation about the new Roosevelt Island Library
Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 6-8 PM
Good Shepherd Community Center
543 Main Street, Roosevelt Island

The New York Public Library is planning for a new home for the Roosevelt Island Library. We would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on the programs and services for the new library.

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WELCOME TO ROOSEVELT ISLAND

Welcome to the Roosevelt Islander Online!

Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.

The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.